PhD Program Details. 1. Residency Requirements. 2. Registration Requirements. For students matriculating after Sept 1, 2004.

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1 PhD Program Details For students matriculating after Sept 1, There are three stages of admission to the doctoral program: admission to graduate study when the student first matriculates, admission to doctoral study following successful completion of the preliminary examination, and admission to candidacy following successful completion of the comprehensive examination and approval of the dissertation proposal. A minimum of 60 credits, including 42 course and seminar credits beyond the master s degree, and at least 18 dissertation credits are required. Students without a Master s Degree will be required to take a minimum of 12 additional credits of coursework or seminars, for a total of 72 credits beyond the Bachelor s degree. Students who did not take the prerequisite courses as part of earlier studies should expect to complete admission requirements or equivalent courses. A student pursuing a PhD degree is first admitted to graduate study in Information Science. During the first year of study and in preparation for the preliminary examination, PhD students should complete initial course work and attend the PhD orientation session (a two-hour review of requirements for the PhD degree). 1. Residency Requirements Full-time residency, in addition to requiring full-time study, affords the student the opportunity for daily professional interaction with faculty and other PhD students. This interaction is a major component in the student's preparation for research. Despite the benefits that full-time residency affords, it is recognized that students may have off-campus responsibilities as well. The PhD degree, therefore, can be completed by a combination of full-time and part-time study. Two terms of full-time study are required. Full-time study is defined as nine or more graduate credits per term. All students, whether on campus or away, must maintain active status by registering according to the requirements stated below. No matter your status, you must meet with their advisor at least once per year. Annually, students will submit an annual progress report to the PHD Program Chair, the Program Secretary and the advisor. This will take place on the second Friday of January. 2. Registration Requirements Students must register each term for the number of credits of course work, independent study, or research equivalent to the anticipated use of faculty time and University facilities. A student who has not registered for at least one credit during a 12- month period will be transferred automatically to inactive status and must file an application for readmission to graduate study (and pay the application fee) before being permitted to register again. Upon readmission, the student is required to adjust the program of studies to meet current PhD degree program, School, and University requirements. In keeping with University policy, all graduate students must be enrolled for a minimum of 1 credit in the term in which they graduate. Doctoral students who have completed all credit requirements for the PhD degree, including minimum dissertation credit requirements, and are working full time on their dissertations, are

2 encouraged to register for "Full-time Dissertation Study," with a fixed-fee registration per term, currently $500 plus applicable fees. [Enrollment in this course fulfills the University requirements for registration in the term of graduation.] 2.1 Transfer of Credits Upon petition to the Graduate Information Science (GIST) faculty and with the consent of the student s advisor, a student may be granted up to 6 credits of advanced standing. This credit for graduate course work completed at another institution may be granted if the credit has not been applied to a previous degree, has been earned within the 6-year statute of limitations, and is relevant to the student's doctoral studies in the School of Information Sciences. Advanced standing is granted at the time of admission or during the first term of course work, if approved. Petitions for transfer of credits must be received at the time of application or during the first term of attendance. Transcripts verifying the graduate courses must accompany the petition along with sufficient documentation to permit the faculty to evaluate their relevance to the doctoral program. Transfer credits must be earned at an accredited institution granting degrees at the doctoral level. No credit will be granted toward doctoral degrees for work completed in extension courses or in off-campus centers of another institution unless those credits are approved for graduate degrees at that institution. Transfer credits will not be accepted for courses in which grades lower than a "B," or its equivalent, has been received. The University of Pittsburgh s Policy on transfer of credits is here. Please note these transfer credits will not be applied to core courses, independent study or doctoral seminars. 2.2 Probation and Termination All students pursuing the doctoral degree are required to maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 3.3 after admission to graduate study and for all course work applicable to the degree. Students are automatically placed on academic probation when their cumulative GPA falls below 3.3. The graduate faculty may choose to terminate students on probation for two consecutive terms. A cumulative GPA of 3.3 or better is required for admission to doctoral study and for the award of the doctoral degree. In addition, students must show adequate progress through an annual review to be held on the 2nd Friday of January. 3. Preparation for the Preliminary Examination In preparation for the preliminary examination, which is described below PhD students will complete the following course work. 3.1 Core Courses: Four graduate-level courses, one in each of the following areas. Students, who have taken two or more of these courses (in any cluster described below) as part of a degree at the University of Pittsburgh, may take additional courses from the remaining areas. Prerequisites for the core courses are not counted as part of the PhD course requirements. Research methods cluster: INFSCI RESEARCH DESIGN INFSCI DATA MINING

3 INFSCI ALGORITHM DESIGN Foundations cluster: INFSCI INFORMATION AND CODING THEORY INFSCI DECISION ANAL AND DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS INFSCI CRYPTOGRAPHY INFSCI 2180 (2906) - KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION AND THE SEMANTIC WEB INFSCI INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL Design cluster: INFSCI INTERACTIVE SYSTEM DESIGN INFSCI INFORMATION SYSTEMS DESIGN INFSCI CLIENT-SERVER SYSTEMS INFSCI DEVELOPING SECURE SYSTEMS Information cluster: INFSCI 2711 ADVANCED TOPICS IN DATABASEMANAGEMENT INFSCI GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS INFSCI WEB TECHNOLOGIES AND STANDARDS 3.2 Independent Research: Six credits of independent study focused on a research project are required. This research will normally be supervised by the student's advisor over two terms, but any IS faculty member who is a member of the graduate faculty may supervise the student. The student may opt to have different faculty supervise different parts of the independent study. The result of this research will be an original, publishable quality research paper, which will serve as the basis of the preliminary exam (see below). Previously published work may not be used to fulfill this requirement, although the independent research project might build upon previous work done by the student. 3.3Doctoral Seminars: Three doctoral seminars (9 credits), including a required Introduction to Doctoral Research (IS 3005), are required. IS3005 is offered every fall/spring and should be taken during the first year of study. This course will cover the scope of research in Information Science. Advanced doctoral seminars will be focused on single research themes. 4. Preliminary Examination The goal of the preliminary evaluation is to assess your breadth of knowledge and ability to conduct research in information science. The evidence of your breath of knowledge is your performance in the core courses and seminars. The evidence of your ability to conduct research

4 is provided by authorship, presentation, and public defense of a publishable quality research paper that: 1. presents work you have done under the direction of a graduate faculty member in the department; 2. demonstrates your ability to conduct research and clearly report the results of that research; 3. shows your mastery of the subject matter, both in the written paper and in your oral presentation and defense. 4.1 Research Project and Paper. During the first year of doctoral study, under the direction of your advisor (or another full or adjunct member of the department graduate faculty), students will design and complete a research project. The project should reflect only those activities undertaken during the first year of study. A previous master's thesis or other work completed prior to the start of doctoral study may not be submitted for this requirement. While much research involves working in a larger team, your role in the project and in writing the paper should be significant. You must be the primary author, and ideally you will be the sole author. You should seek a project or a part of a project in which you take the lead in conducting the research and writing up the results under the direction of your advisor. However, unlike a dissertation or thesis, the research paper submitted for the preliminary evaluation may include co-authors. In this case, the role of each co-author should be clearly stated in writing by the student and submitted along with the research paper. Furthermore, the paper may be integrated with other work and later submitted for publication with a longer list of authors. 4.2 Research Paper Components. Research papers take many forms, and some venues require particular nomenclature or forms. The paper submitted to the faculty to meet this requirement should include the following components: 1. a clear statement of the problem 2. an innovative idea that addresses the problem 3. a survey of the relevant research literature 4. an explication and implementation of a methodology for addressing the problem 5. evidence that the described idea achieves its goal 6. analysis and evaluation 7. discussion of the research, including but not limited to shortcomings of the work and directions for future work. 8. a list of references While it is possible to deviate from this structure, this should only be done with the support of your advisor. 4.3 Submission and Presentation of Research Papers. Submission and presentation of your paper must be made not later than in January following your second fall semester in the program. Students must complete the 6 credits of Independent Research Study and IS 3005 before taking the preliminary examination. The due date for submission of the paper is the second Friday of January. On the fourth Friday of January, papers will be presented orally to the IS graduate faculty in a public forum. Each student will give a 20-minute long oral presentation of his/her

5 paper to the faculty, followed by a 20-minute discussion. All presentations will be made on a single day. Faculty will meet the same day to grade the written and oral performance. The result of the exam will be: (a) pass, (b) fail with one more chance to re-take the exam the following year, or (c) fail with no chance to re-take the exam. While the submission and presentation of your paper may be made before the completion of the core courses and doctoral seminar, the preliminary evaluation will not be considered satisfied until all core courses and doctoral seminars are completed. 5. Preparation for the Comprehensive Exam Students will have successfully completed the preliminary examination. In preparation for the comprehensive exam, it is expected that the student will complete 3 credits of advanced statistics and a minimum of 12 additional credits in elective courses. Any graduate-level course inside or outside the program can count as an elective, if approved by the student's advisor as consistent with and contributory to his or her program of studies. Students who are ready to take the comprehensive exam without the 12 additional credits may do so and petition to take additional dissertation credits to replace the elective credits. To be admitted to the comprehensive examination a student must have: 1. successfully completed the preliminary examination; 2. completed the 1-term residency requirement; and 3. notify via the Chair of the PhD Committee and Program Chair/Secretary of the Committee of the comprehensive examination at least two weeks before the exam. This notification should include the title of the Comprehensive Exam, the date, and the Committee members. 6. Comprehensive Examination The comprehensive examination requires successful completion of the preliminary exam. The student will propose three areas of concentration. These areas must be approved by the examining committee, which will consist of the advisor who will chair the examining committee, and two other full time graduate faculty members from GIST selected by the student with the approval of the adviser. To gain this approval, the student should send a hard-copy letter with the three selected areas to all committee members for their signatures. In exceptional cases, where the student's focus requires outside expertise, one committee member may come from outside the GIST graduate faculty body if recommended by the advisor and approved by the chair of the PhD Program. Suggested areas of concentration include: Security Geographic Information Systems Cryptography Information Retrieval Distributed Computing Object Oriented Analysis and Design Programming Languages

6 Operating Systems Expert Systems Software Engineering Augmentation Spatial Information Theory Natural Language Processing Adaptive Systems Database Systems Document Systems Interactive Systems Data Mining Standards and the Standardization Process Visualization Virtual Information Spaces The student must meet with the members of the committee to discuss the topics and foci. The student, with the consent of the committee, is free to select areas within information science that are not on the list, so long as the committee is unanimous in approving the topics. Once the committee and the topic areas are selected, the student will prepare an activity and reading list with the advice and approval of the committee members. The student will then proceed with the review of literature, based on the reading list. When the student is ready, he/she will inform the advisor who will ask each member of the committee to submit one or more questions to the advisor. The advisor will be responsible for coordinating the exam with appropriate balance over the three topic areas. The student will be given the questions and allowed one week to prepare written answers to the questions. After review of the written answers, two-hour oral examination will be scheduled and open to the public. The final reading list, questions and answers should be published and available to the ischool community on the Schools Web site. As soon as finalized, forward this information to the School s Webmaster (at webmaster@sis.pitt.edu ), with copies sent to the PhD Chair and all comprehensive committee members. It will normally be within a week of the completion of the written exam, but in all cases no later than within three weeks. The student will make a 10-minute presentation on the key points. The oral questions will cover the answers on the written examination, and more broadly, about knowledge of the material in the three areas of concentration. The result of the comprehensive examination will be a pass or fail. If a student fails, they may retake the exam one more time. 7. Pre-Candidacy Once the comprehensive examination is successfully completed, the student can propose and defend a dissertation topic. The student and the dissertation advisor should select the dissertation committee.

7 7.1 Dissertation. Each student must write a dissertation that presents the results of a research project carried out by the student. This research project involves a substantive piece of original and independent research grounded in an appropriate body of literature. 7.2 Dissertation Credits. Doctoral students are required to take a minimum of 18 dissertation credits as a part of their study. Dissertation credits should be taken during terms when a student is actively working on the dissertation. Most research activities during the first two years of the program are better completed as part of an independent study or a doctoral seminar. In any term in which a student is enrolled for dissertation credits, the student should meet with their advisor on a regular basis to monitor that appropriate progress is being made towards the completion of the dissertation proposal or the dissertation. The specific activities in a given term should depend on the current stage of the dissertation process. In addition to writing the proposal and dissertation itself, other appropriate activities may include reviewing the literature, programming, prototyping, running preliminary studies, writing grant proposals, preparing journal articles related to the dissertation or presenting preliminary results at conferences. Doctoral students who have completed all credit requirements for the PhD degree, including minimum dissertation-credit requirements, are encouraged to register for "Full-time Dissertation Study," with a fixed-fee registration per term, currently $500 plus applicable fees, for both Pennsylvania residents and nonresidents. Enrollment in this course provides a student with fulltime status and fulfills the University requirements for registration in the term of graduation. 7.3 Dissertation Advisor. Students must gain the agreement of a member of the GIST graduate faculty to chair the dissertation committee that will advise on the area of research and the design of the dissertation study. The advisor's agreement is recorded in the student's file. Any request to change the dissertation advisor must be submitted in writing to the Chair of the GIST PhD Program Approval for the change and the selection of another dissertation advisor is placed in the student s file. In most cases, the student's program advisor continues as the dissertation advisor and chair of the dissertation committee. By University regulations the dissertation advisor must be a graduate faculty member of the Information Science and Technology Program. In the event that either the student or advisor desires a change, another GIST graduate faculty member may serve as dissertation advisor and chair of the dissertation committee. The student's dissertation advisor together with the student: assists in choosing the dissertation committee and in confirming the eligibility of all members selected; arranges with the IST support staff to schedule the dissertation proposal presentation; reviews progress toward completion of the research; arranges with support staff to schedule the dissertation defense; chairs the dissertation defense; secures appropriate signatures from dissertation committee members and assures that all required paperwork is submitted in accordance with SIS and University procedures.

8 7.4 Dissertation Committee. The dissertation committee, selected by the student and dissertation advisor, shall consist of at least five members, including the dissertation advisor, with the majority being from the GIST graduate faculty. One of the members must hold a primary faculty appointment outside the SIS faculty. Upon the recommendation of the dissertation advisor, a member, or members, may be appointed from outside the University. The members of the Dissertation Committee must be approved by the PhD Committee Chair and the Dean. The expenses involved in the attendance of the outside person at meetings are not the responsibility of the School. The dissertation committee is responsible for monitoring the research, conducting and evaluating the oral defense of the dissertation, and approving the final written presentation of the dissertation. The dissertation advisor directs the dissertation research and writing, but all committee members have the responsibility to assist the student as consultants. 7.5 Dissertation Proposal. After successfully completing the comprehensive examination, the student, in consultation with the dissertation advisor, must prepare a dissertation proposal. The written proposal is presented to the dissertation committee and defended in a hearing before the dissertation committee. Students must demonstrate their potential to complete a sound project of original research by presenting and defending the dissertation proposal to their dissertation committee. The dissertation committee must unanimously approve the dissertation topic and research plan before the student may be admitted to candidacy for the doctoral degree. Approval of the proposal does not imply either the acceptance of a dissertation prepared in accord with the proposal. Originality may be reflected in a number of ways. For example, a candidate may pose an important new problem or formulate an existing problem in a novel and useful way. A candidate may investigate previously ignored material or develop new techniques for investigating issues. Extensions of previous investigations are acceptable provided they incorporate important new elements in the design or execution of the research. The student must submit the dissertation proposal to the committee at least two weeks prior to the scheduled hearing. Copies of the dissertation proposal are made by the student at his or her own expense. When the proposal has been successfully defended, the student's dissertation advisor shall notify the Chair of the PhD Committee, the Chair of the Information Science and Technology Program, and the Dean of SIS that the student has achieved formal candidacy. After approval of the dissertation proposal, major changes may not be made without approval of the student and the dissertation committee. The student is responsible for filing a copy of the approved proposal in the IS Program office. Electronic notice of the student's meeting with the dissertation committee to approve the proposal will be distributed to the GIST faculty at least two weeks ahead of time. The notice will contain the student's name; the title of the proposal; the date, time, and place of the meeting; and a link to the electronic version of the dissertation proposal. The dissertation proposal meeting is open to all IST faculty and PhD students who wish to attend and others by invitation of the student.

9 8. Candidacy For admission to candidacy for the PhD degree, a student must have: 1. passed the preliminary examination; 2. completed a minimum of 42 credits beyond the master's degree with a GPA of 3.3 or higher; 3. passed the comprehensive examination; 4. successfully presented a dissertation proposal and received approval of the dissertation proposal by the dissertation committee. When these steps have been taken, and the dissertation advisor has notified the Program and the School, the Program Chair will notify the student in writing of his admission to doctoral candidacy. A copy of the notice will be placed in the student's folder. The student is expected, at this time, to schedule and present a colloquium on his or her research to the Program and the public. Meetings of the doctoral candidate and the dissertation committee must occur at least annually from the time the student gains admission to doctoral candidacy. During these meetings, the advisor should assess the student's progress toward the degree, discuss objectives for the following year, and project a timetable for completing degree requirements. 8.1 Eligibility for the Dissertation Defense. To be eligible to defend the dissertation, a student must have: 1. completed the residency requirement; 2. at least four weeks prior to the date of the defense, requested the formal announcement of the defense in the University Times ; 3. at least two weeks prior to the date of the defense, distributed copies of the dissertation to the dissertation committee and make it available to the School s faculty. These copies are provided by the student at his or her own expense. The dissertation should be completed within the statute of limitations described below. If the statute of limitations is about to be exceeded and there is evidence of reasonable progress, the graduate faculty may extend the statute by a specific period usually not exceeding one year. It is the student's responsibility to present evidence of progress to his or her advisor along with a request for extension prior to the end of the statute of limitation period. All requests for extension must be approved by IST graduate faculty. 8.2 Preparation for the Defense Procedural Requirements The student should work with the advisor to ensure that the dissertation will be produced in an acceptable style and format. Document preparation materials are located here.

10 The student must submit all forms, letters, and questionnaires related to the dissertation research to the departmental members of the dissertation committee for approval before any such documents are publicly distributed. The student is also responsible for meeting University requirements when human subjects are used in research. These requirements are found in the University of Pittsburgh's Reference Manual for the Use of Human Subjects in Research. The School of Information Sciences has a faculty representative on the Institutional Review Board who may be contacted with questions of procedure. The student must prepare a final copy of the dissertation conforming to the University of Pittsburgh's Style and Form Manual for the format of the dissertation. Since the bibliographic style is best determined by the subject of the dissertation, a style manual of the student's choice may be used for the content of the dissertation and must be applied consistently throughout. If University facilities and/or faculty time are being used in dissertation research and/or the writing of the dissertation, then students are required to register for at least 3 credits per term or such greater amount as the School deems appropriate or Full-Time Dissertation Study Registration Requirement Students completing their research work for the dissertation will be required to register for at least one credit in the term during which they expect either to complete degree requirements or have the oral defense. Students who have completed all credit requirements for the PhD degree may register for "Full-Time Dissertation Study." If the student is a doctoral candidate and off-campus, not using University facilities and/or faculty time, the candidate need only register for 1 credit per academic year to maintain active enrollment status. If a student does complete all the work in a given term, including the dissertation defense, and has been cleared for graduation too late to be included on the graduation list for that term, the student may apply to graduate the following term and need not enroll for any courses or any credits, subject to approval by the Dean's office. If a student is unable to complete the work during the expected term of graduation due to some extenuating circumstances related to the School and University (beyond control of the student and attested to by the Dean's office), the student will not be required to register for additional credits in the term of graduation. All requests for exceptions to the policy stated above should be sent to the Program Chair from the advisor for clearance and recommendation and then to the Dean for consideration and approval Defense of the Dissertation. Dissertation defenses must be publicly announced and are open to the University community, but only the dissertation committee may vote. A student defends his or her dissertation successfully if the dissertation committee unanimously approves it. Although the dissertation defense is dedicated primarily to the field of the dissertation, other questions relating to information science may be considered at this time. The chair of the dissertation committee serves as the session moderator. A student who successfully defends the dissertation with conditions to be completed must satisfy those conditions with the approval of the dissertation advisor within one year.

11 8.2.4 Publication of the Dissertation. The candidate for a PhD degree is required to pay a fee specified by the University to Student Accounts and submit two copies of the title page and two copies of the abstract to the Program secretary. The abstract must not be more than 350 words (2450 typewritten characters) in length. With 70 characters per line there are at most 35 lines in the abstract. The first copy of the abstract must be approved by the dissertation advisor and must be submitted with the original unbound copy of the dissertation to the Dean's office. The University Microfilm Agreement and the Survey of Earned Doctorate forms must be completed at this time. The dissertation and abstract will be examined and approved by the student's dissertation advisor for style, format, and related matters. In addition, the student must provide three bound copies of the dissertation to the SIS Library. Any dissertation may be published after the final defense provided that the dissertation submitted for publication is approved as to form and content by the dissertation advisor and also provided that due acknowledgment is made to the University. No form of publication, however, shall relieve the student of the responsibility for supplying the proper abstract, the specified complete copy of the thesis or dissertation for binding and deposit in Hillman Library, and the three bound copies for the SIS Library. For more information, please visit the University of Pittsburgh Electronic Theses and Dissertations website. 9. Statute Of Limitations All requirements for the PhD degree must be completed in not more than six calendar years from the time of first registration. Students may, in extenuating circumstances, submit a formal request for extension of their statute of limitations or for a leave of absence from the program. The request must be submitted to the advisor and then presented to the IST graduate faculty. In all other matters of policy, refer to the University publication, Regulations Governing Graduate Study at the University of Pittsburgh. 10. Summary of Course Requirements and an Ideal Timeline All students will complete: Required coursework (30 credits) Four core courses (12 credits) One introductory doctoral seminar (3 credits) Two topical doctoral seminars (6 credits) Two independent research studies (6 credits) One advanced statistics (3 credits) Elective coursework (12 credits) Four electives, independent study, doctoral seminars, or coursework in other departments (12 credits) Dissertation work (18 credits) A minimum of 18 credits of dissertation study

12 This represents a total of 60 credits. Students with adequate preparation can petition to replace any or all of 12 additional credits with dissertation credits. Typical Timeline For Coursework/Exams First Year Fall IS 3005 Core Course Core Course First Year Spring Elective Doc Seminar Core Course Elective Research Study First Year Summer Independent Study, research and/or teaching Second Year Fall Doc Seminar Core Course Research Study Second Year Spring Second Year Summer Preliminary Examination Electives Electives Advanced Statistics Independent Study, research and/or teaching Third Year Fall Electives Electives Third Year Spring Fourth Year Fall Comprehensive Exam Dissertation Proposal Defense Dissertation Work Dissertation Work Fifth Year Spring Dissertation Defense Dissertation Work